A convenience store on Dumbarton Road has been stripped of its licence to sell alcohol after staff were caught on their own CCTV system selling drink out of hours.

The Lifestyle Express in Whiteinch, run by licence holder Syad Akram, was today banned from selling alcohol following a hearing in front of the Glasgow Licensing Board.

During the hearing members of the board watched as staff made 26 out of hours sales over a 12-day period last October. Among the buyers were four or five 'regular' customers and at one point in the footage one of the men in question actually looks up and points at the shop camera.

Licencing Board officials monitored the premises after receiving a complaint from Police Scotland. The local housing association had also raised concerns about public drinking in the area.

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On one occasion Police officers caught an intoxicated woman leaving the shop at 7.37am with a bottle of spirits wrapped in cardboard. When confronted Ms Akram's son, Alishaan, who made the sale, claimed he did not have access to the CCTV footage. Officers then found the security code written on the instructions for the camera and seized the evidence.

On October 14 two men pushing a pram were sold alcohol at 9.19am.

Licence holder Akram was represented by her lawyer, Archie Maciver, at today's hearing. He told the board that Akram had been out of the country visiting her sick mother in Pakistan during the 12-day period in question.

The alcohol had been sold by her husband, Mohammed Akram and their son. The men claimed they had been pressured into making the sales.

“I’m not going to defend the indefensible," said Mr Mciver. "By any view, what happened here is unacceptable.

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“Mrs Akram is a respectable woman and she is as horrified as anyone who has seen the CCTV footage. It’s shocking, they knew exactly what they are doing.

“Twenty years she’s run this shop. Over twenty years she’s built up a good reputation and in three weeks that’s been smashed to pieces.”

However, the licencing board were unmovd by the plea with Councillor Butler stating: “It’s not as if it’s an isolated incident, it’s a whole series of incidents. And it didn’t look as though it had just started either.”

Mrs Akram also said that since the incidents she had been "much more hands-on" in the running of the shop. Her husband now only made trips to the cash and carry and filled shelves while her son had also been barred from the till and was working as a sub-postmaster in another part of the shop. Weekly training and regular spots checks were now also being undertaken.